I am here to score runs: George Bailey

George Bailey believes he is ready for Tests after having amassed 478 runs at 95.6 in Australia's 3-2 series loss in India last week. Bailey admits he is 'not pretty' to watch but now has more confidence in his batting methods and ability to score big runs.

Bailey arrived back from India on Monday and now plans to play in Tasmania's Sheffield Shield clash with Queensland starting in Brisbane from Wednesday to make another audition for the No.6 spot in the Test team. With a mountain of ODI runs under in belt from India, Bailey looks like a top contender for the middle-order spot.

Bailey is yet to receive a word from selectors about his inclusion ahead of the Shield clash but he said he is not worried about it. "I am here to score runs. It's a pretty simple equation," he said.

When questioned whether he is ready to play Test cricket, the 31-yr old Tasmanian replied, "I feel like I am. I feel I am playing some good cricket and I am trying to get even better. I am at an age where you know you are going to get only one crack at it. So you do it exactly the way you want to do it and I think there are some positives in that too."

Although Bailey has struggled to fulfill his true potential at certain times (he averaged only 18 in the Shield last season), he has learned to put the past behind. However, many ex-players still doubt his ability to score runs in the longer format of the game. Former Australia captain Ian Chappell was the latest to join the bandwagon and claimed in a newspaper column that Bailey's batting technique was not worthy of Tests despite his mountain of runs in the sub-continent. But Bailey disagrees with it.

"When you get to my age it's making small changes just to make sure you are as sharp as you can be, more mentally than anything else. What I have got out of the last couple of series is a lot of confidence in the way I play, not worrying too much about external factors. That's a nice way to be. I wish I had worked that out a lot earlier," he said.

Having learned to ignore the critics, Bailey is now finally happy the way he is. "When I watch the TV and see Ricky Ponting or Michael Clarke bat, that to me is beautiful. When I watch myself bat it is not that pretty. But once you come to terms with that and make sure it is as good as it can be I don't think anyone cares how it happens as long as you are making runs," he said.

Being on the wrong side of 30, Bailey also disagrees with the infatuation with age in sport. He believes that a player should be judged on performances. "The Mike Husseys and the like have showed that age is no barrier. I think a lot of cricketers are playing their best cricket post-30," he added.

Cricket Australia High performance director, Pat Howard has candidly admitted that he took a back-seat and allowed Darren Lehmann, the coach of the Australian team to implement his ideas during the recently concluded Ashes series.